Radiohead sounded great on the main stage during their headlining set in Friday — at least they did when you could hear them.
In perhaps the worst sound snafu ever for such a prominent slot at the desert music fest the sound cut out entirely for large parts of “Full Stop,” “15 Step” and “Let Down” – three of the first seven numbers in
Radiohead’s set.
The crowd groaned each time but because the band play with in-ear sound monitors they had little idea what was happening into the end of each song. After leaving the stage twice briefly things seemed to get
back on track nearly an hour into the set.
Radiohead’s show started slowly, with newer tunes such as “Daydreaming,” lovely with its piano part played by Jonny Greenwood, and “Desert Island Disk,” a pretty number built around singer Thom Yorke’s voice and acoustic guitar.
Older numbers in the first hour such as “Airbag” off the “OK Computer” album and “Street Spirit (Fade Out) got big responses from the crowd.
Radiohead has played Coachella three times now and while they were big draws in past years the changing tastes of festival fans, and programmers, saw them get one of their smallest crowds here. The dance
music In the Sahara tent — with Empire of the Sun and Dillon Francis slotted opposite Radiohead – surely drew a big chunk of fans away from the main stage.
And its their loss for not being there because this is one the great bands of the past two decades, emotionally complex, musically challenging, and when the sound system cooperates a true delight to see and hear.
Midnight passed and we’d gone six whole songs without any more sound issues, knock wood, and the set is finally as it should be with glorious takes on “There There” and “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” as Saturday arrived.
Near the end of the set, just before launching into “Creep,” Yorke commented, “A funny thing happened on the way to the festival tonight – no it didn’t.”